Qihoo 360: TH Capital Sees Solid Quarter

By Ben Levisohn

Qihoo 360 Technology (QIHU) has had a strong run, but it’s gain might be justified by its second quarter numbers.

AFP

In a report today, T.H. Capital breaks down what it expects to be a solid second quarter for Qihoo’s various businesses, including search, where it competes with Baidu (BIDU). T.H. Capital’s analysts write:

Traffic for QIHU’s search engine could be up 20%+ – Average daily pageviews (PV) of QIHU’s search engine could increase to 233M or 23.9% Q/Q from 188M in 1Q13…QIHU’s market share measured by PV could be 15.6% by June 25, 2013, up from 13.9% at the end of March 2013. Since most of QIHU’s search traffic is diverged from its browser, we expect the market share of Qihoo’s search engine to eventually be in line with the market share of browser….

The market share of Qihoo’s browser could be about 25%…Activities in mobile app store could be strong – By June 25, 2013, the average number of total mobile apps in QIHU’s Android app store could be 110K, up from 105K in 1Q13. The number of mobile app downloads could be 4.2B, up from 3.0B in 1Q13, or 38.7% Q/Q growth…

TH Capital reiterated its Buy rating and $52 price target. With the stock trading up 0.4% today to $49.71, that leaves just 4.6% of upside, however.

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Emerging markets have been synonymous with growth, but the outlook for individual nations is constantly changing. Countries from Brazil and Russia to Turkey face challenges including infrastructure bottlenecks, credit issues and political shifts. Barrons.com’s Emerging Markets Daily blog analyzes news, data and research out of emerging markets beyond Asia to help readers navigate the investment landscape.

Barron’s veteran Dimitra DeFotis has been blogging about emerging market investing since traveling to India and Turkey. Based in New York, she previously wrote for Barron’s about U.S. equity investing, including cover stories and roundtables on energy themes. Dimitra was among the first digital journalists at the Chicago Tribune and started her career as a police reporter at the Daily Herald in the Chicago suburbs. Dimitra holds degrees from the University of Illinois and Columbia University, where she was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in the business and journalism schools. She studies multiple languages and photography.